How I became a net worth millionaire
In this post, I will share with you how I become a net worth millionaire.
My current net worth
It has been a while since I provided you with my net worth update. The truth is I haven’t been entirely honest with you. I have only been counting my portion of assets and liabilities but excluded my wife’s.
My current asset is approximately $300,000 minus my wife’s assets. Full disclosure, my wife and I are both full-time pharmacists. She has been working full-time with a pharmacist salary since 2011. On the other hand, I have been working full-time with a pharmacist salary since 2013.
My wife and I mirror each other financially, with both opened our Roth IRA and taxable brokerage account at the same time. Along with her savings and 401(k), my wife’s current assets amounted to approximately $420,000.
The current value of our house is $283,000, with still have around $80,000 left from our mortgage. We do not owe any other form of debt.
Lastly, our car has a combined value of around $40,000 and $40,000 in cash.
Granted, our portfolios enjoyed the recent surge in the stock market and our house gained a healthy appreciation.
Net worth: $1,083,000-$80,000=$1,003,000
And that’s how I became a net worth millionaire.
Aggressively Paid off Debts
We both paid off our student loans back in 2019. While I didn’t know the exact dollar amount but it was north of $400,000 including interests.
We used a variety of methods to bring out debt down. I relied on the debt snowball and the avalanche method to slowly chipped away my student loan.
When we had a manageable amount left over, we decided to refinance our student loans to take advantage of lower interest rates.
I didn’t keep track of how much my wife owed but when I refinanced my student loan I still had $120,000 and I paid that off in 2 years!
My wife even used a little bit of credit card hacking when she opened a Citi card with 18 months of interest-free for a balance transfer.
Our current project is to pay off our mortgage within the next 2 to 3 years by paying extra toward the principal.
Live below our means
As dual-income pharmacists, even after taxes we had a sizeable amount of take-home money. We could have chosen to upgrade our lifestyle (known as lifestyle inflation), we remained vigilant since our end game was to pay off our student loans as fast as possible.
Fortunately, we live in an area that has a low cost of living and rarely do we go out to eat or go to Starbucks! We mostly cook our meals at home and began to cut off unnecessary expenses.
For example, after years of paying for Directv that we rarely used, we decided to be a cord-cutter a few years ago and haven’t looked back! We were paying $168 per month for cable!
Optimizing our investments
Since the beginning, we took advantage of the company match by contributing 3% toward our 401 (k) plans. We were newly grads with a car payment, a mortgage, and student loans to take care of so we started with 3% and selected the option of a 1% auto increase annually.
We are currently maximizing both our 401 (k) at 14% and performing backdoor Roth IRA yearly.
Since we are receiving income from this blog and my wife’s YouTube channel I opened an individual 401 (k) also known as solo 401 (k) last year.
Our investing strategy is now contributing excess money to our taxable brokerage account. We are aiming to reach at least a $1.2 million or $2million portfolio before we are going to plan for semi-retirement.
I am planning to take advantage of the Roth IRA ladder to fund our early retirement years.
Emergency Fund
At the same time, we are chugging along with our cash reserves to last at least 6 months to a year. As a rule of thumb, most financial experts recommend for you have an emergency fund that lasts 3 to 6 months.
Becoming a landlord
Our portfolios are invested in a Vanguard institutional fund that has exposure to public traded REITs, we also invest in VTSAX in our Roth and taxable account and there’s also real estate exposure there.
I have been putting a little money into a Fundrise account as an alternative investment. We’re now pursuing investing in a single home and becoming a landlord.
Final Thoughts
How does it feel to be a net worth millionaire? It honestly hasn’t affected us that much. We celebrated by going out to eat to mark this significant milestone in our financial life but everything else remained the same.
In fact, according to Schwab, Americans believe that you need $1.7 million to retire comfortably. The $1.7 referenced is actually from 2019. A recently updated number updated by Schwab is $1.9 million.
I agree with wit this estimate and will strive for a $2 million nest egg before taking the plunge.
Are we ready to retire? Yes mentally, in all honesty, the pandemic and the stress of being a pharmacist for so many years is getting to us. We are ready to retire mentally but not financially.
When the time comes we are planning to go part-time and/or PRN to give us the tie to build our Roth IRA ladder and ease into the semi-retired/early retirement stage of our lives.
Please hang in there my fellow pharmacists and you are an integral part of our healthcare system and please take care of your physical, mental, and financial well-being.